Record-breaking temperatures continue in August

13 September 2024

The extended streak of extraordinarily high temperatures has continued, and the year so far has been the warmest on record for the globe, according to three leading international datasets. 

It was the warmest August on record, marking the 15th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures, which it itself is a record, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service

The northern hemisphere (boreal) summer was the hottest on record and July saw the hottest day on record. Global temperatures in both July and August 2023 and 2024 were well above anything recorded before. 

Global summaries from other international climate centres will be available in the coming days. 

WMO combines six international datasets for consolidated rankings for its annual State of the Climate report, which shows that 2023 is the warmest year on record. WMO will issue the preliminary State of the Global Climate 2024 report for the UN Climate Change conference, COP29, in Azerbaijan in November.

Extreme weather – including intense heat, extreme precipitation and drought – accompanied by floods and wildfires – continued to cause devastation and despair in many countries in August. 

World map displaying land and ocean temperature departures from the average in August 2024, based on a 1991-2020 baseline. Areas in red indicate warmer-than-average temperatures, blue indicates cooler.
Land and Ocean Temperature Departure from Average August 2024
NOAA GlobalTemp v6.0.0-20240908

With the impacts of climate change increasing constantly, WMO is also intensifying efforts to help protect people from life-threatening weather through the Early Warnings for All initiative. It is rolling out a new Global Greenhouse Gas Watch initiative to step up support for climate change mitigation. 

Temperatures are just one of the indicators of climate change. Others include ocean heat, sea ice and glaciers. 

Global sea ice extent was the second lowest on record in August – with Arctic sea ice being the fourth lowest and Antarctic sea ice the second lowest on record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service and NOAA reports. 

The global ocean was second warmest on record for August. Near-average sea surface temperatures (SSTs) were observed across most of the equatorial Pacific Ocean, with forecasts suggesting a possible transition to La Niña during the northern hemisphere autumn, but sea surface temperatures across the oceans remained unusually high over many regions. 

August temperatures were above average across much of the global land surface except for Alaska, eastern Russia, southern South America, central Africa and west-central Asia. 

Line chart showing year-to-date global surface temperature anomalies from 2016 to 2024, with 2023 and 2024 reaching higher anomalies. Data sources mentioned are ERA5, C3S/ECMWF, and others.
Monthly year-to-date global surface air temperature anomalies relative to 1991-2020 for the ten warmest years on record. 2024 is shown with a red line, 2023 with a yellow line, and all other years with grey lines. Data source: ERA5.
Copernicus Climate Change Service/ECMWF.
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